by Liam Byrne
An action packed episode of Florida, which is definitely not always the case. Admittedly, most of it was focused on the Graham versus Funk Jr. match, but that was an entertaining (and long) contest that then had the Barr/Solie/Colt altercation afterwards. The main event was a nothing really with a rubbish finish, but the rest carried the show enough for my liking.
MACW World Wide Wrestling 11.8.84
Due to the way the episodes are cut, this is the first time across the course of the year that I’ve actually had the introductory video for the show. I’ve not really been missing out as it is clips of wrestling interspersed with orange shapes that apparently represent the Mid-Atlantic territory. Until they all meet up at the end, they do just look like disembodied blocks with no real rhyme or reason.
Following a pretty dull start, Angelo Mosca Jr. begins the show, so it isn’t guaranteed to get much better in a hurry. What has occurred – unsurprisingly, considering Dory Funk Jr. is being awesome in Florida – is that Mosca Jr. is once again the Mid-Atlantic Heavyweight Champion. This week, he is up against Gary Royal, a man he has already fought earlier in the year. Mosca Jr. makes a clean break after a collar and elbow tie up ends up in the ropes, before holding onto two attempted armdrags by Royal to turn them into his own arm bar. A hard shoulderblock sends Royal to the canvas, as does an armdrag and a hiptoss. A second armdrag sees Mosca Jr. sit in the armbar for a few moments, though Royal fights his way back to his feet and lands some shoulderblocks in the ropes. Instead of pushing the issue, Royal backs off as Mosca Jr. squares up to him.
A hammerlock and a headscissors has Mosca Jr. controlling Royal on the mat, with an exchange of punches in the ropes also seeing the champion come out on top. Royal briefly has control of Mosca Jr.’s arm, but a leapfrog and flying forearm set up for the top rope crossbody for a three count. Perfectly acceptable squash contest, though not exactly the most inspiring of offense on show by Mosca Jr.
A man who hasn’t been around the television as much since his time down in Memphis is JJ Dillon, but he is with Bob Caudle as he announces his arrival in the territory, one that he has watched wherever he has travelled as both wrestler and manager. As Dillon claims that he is one of the greatest minds in wrestling, he also talks about how people have suggested that this might cause conflict between himself and Paul Jones. Rather than an issue, Dillon talks about how the men have been business associates for a long time and how there won’t be any problems.
What he is there to do, more importantly, is introduce a video for his new tag team: The Long Riders, though the video that follows is all about ‘Cowboy’ Ron Bass. We see footage of Bass in Memphis amongst other territories, showing off an array of power moves and brawling, including winning several matches with a running powerslam. The team would consist of Black Bart as well as Ron Bass, with Florida a current breeding ground for new Mid-Atlantic talent.
Brian Adidis – I swear Mid-Atlantic changes the spelling of his name every week – takes on Bob Bass (no relation of Ron) in the next contest. Adidis uses a headlock to subdue Bass early, whilst a step up onto the second turnbuckle allows him to use the momentum to take the match to the canvas. Adidis then hits a shoulderblock and a hiptoss before returning to the side headlock after a takedown. The side headlock is the go to weapon as it comes after another shoulderblock, though this time Bass turns it into a headscissors.
Adidis turns it into a jacknife pin for two, but Bass isn’t messing as he slams his opponent’s face into the canvas. Bass also avoids an Adidis knee in the corner, allowing the jobber to use a turnbuckle smash before getting dropped with a back elbow to allow Adidis back into the contest. The amount of showing off we see as Adidis uses a leapfrog to set up for a victory roll surprises me as it isn’t the finish, with Bass kicking out at two. He isn’t as lucky moments later when an airplane spin is enough for the Adidis victory. When the most exciting thing about Adidis is the way his name changes, you are in trouble.
Wahoo McDaniel and Tully Blanchard join Bob Caudle, with both men bedecked in some pretty awesome looking suits. Caudle queries what has happened to McDaniel, implying that Blanchard has had something to do with this change of heart. However, McDaniel talks about the oppression of the American Indian and his desire to make them a first class citizen. He also lauds Blanchard for being the only guy willing to put the Television Title up for grabs, unlike Ric Flair or Ricky Steamboat. Blanchard’s words are aimed at Dusty Rhodes as he introduces video footage in which Rhodes attacked Blanchard after a match.
McDaniel comes down to break the figure four leglock that Rhodes has locked on, before taking out numerous other wrestlers who come down to try and save Rhodes. This allows Blanchard to hit a piledriver on Rhodes, whilst some footage follows of Flair getting dumped with a spike piledriver in another post-match incident which ends up with all of the face locker room coming down to the ring to help Flair to the back. Back to McDaniel, he warns Blackjack Mulligan to stay where he is and stay healthy, as if he steps up into a man’s world, he is going to get hurt. Some brilliant promo work all round.
The Assassin and Doug Vines are next up in the ring, with the focus once more on the taped fist of the masked man. Vines has initial success with a shoulderblock, but the Assassin uses his wiles to avoid another attempt and take Vines down with a drop toehold. A general struggle ends up in the ropes, yet it is soon back to the canvas as the Assassin uses a trip before hitting Vines with the taped fist. The fist is used twice more off of an Irish whip and that is enough for the Assassin to take the victory. Purely a match to sell the gimmick rather than anything else.
After some shilling of the (air-conditioned, according to Tony Schiavone) Richmond Coliseum show which sees Ivan Koloff, Tully Blanchard and Wahoo McDaniel do heel 101-style promos against Barry Windham, Dusty Rhodes and Blackjack Mulligan respectively, we have the Youngbloods in the only position they should be – tagging. Jesse Barr and Jeff Swords are their opponents, with Barr appearing on television in Florida and Mid-Atlantic at the same time. Jay Youngblood is still ‘The Renegade’, so you can’t have it all, but the first chop from him has the crowd in raptures and providing more cheers than at any point in this whole show.
Mark Youngblood comes in with an elbow to attack Barr’s arm whilst in an…armbar, before an armdrag allows Youngblood to try and work the limb whilst on the mat. Barr aims a few punches in a vain effort to fight back, only to get blasted with a Renegade chop moments later. Swords is tagged in but he is brought into the face corner almost instantly. Oddly enough, Swords tags out without really much happening as Youngblood tries to swarm him, and Barr feels the wrath of another chop to the chest, this time after two drop downs.
A backbreaker seems to have Barr taking control for his team, but an atomic drop set-up sees Youngblood reach out and make the blind tag, leading to a double atomic drop from the Youngblood boys to Barr which sends him into his own corner and a tag to Swords. Swords is nailed with a double chop, a dropkick from Youngblood and an assisted slingshot splash by the Renegade for the three count. The two men are just vastly more impressive when they are together than on the odd occasion where Mid-Atlantic sees fit to split them up.
Ric Flair is with Caudle, with Caudle asking about what happened with Blackjack Mulligan. Flair first puts over the Mid-Atlantic territory as a whole, before talking up how Wahoo McDaniel’s credentials puts him up there amongst the best of all time. However, he besmirches McDaniel’s for taking the easy route to the top, whilst stabbing people in the back on the way. Flair then talks about his involvement with Mulligan and how they can take on anyone when they are on the same page. Footage of Mulligan is due to follow, with Flair not even knowing whether Mulligan has agreed to come and help him.
Mulligan is by the fire, surrounded by a man with a guitar and another man with a gun, and accepts Flair’s request for him to return to Mid-Atlantic for the first time in three years. As we cut back to Flair and Caudle, the smile on the champion’s face is wide and genuine as he wonders wh
at is on the mind of McDaniel and Blanchard after hearing Mulligan’s promise. This is the first real sign of Flair as the bug-eyed, intense character this year that he would often do to ramp up a storyline. He wants a match in Greensboro, and one that forces McDaniel and Blanchard to face what they have begun. Just it seems he is about to go, Flair makes reference to the Olympic basketball team, his Carolina roots and tells McDaniel to take Texas and stick it.
After a commercial break, Dusty Rhodes is now with Bob Caudle, with Caudle talking about the footage from earlier in which Rhodes was hit with a piledriver by Blanchard. Rhodes being Rhodes, he couches the celebration of Mulligan’s return in terms of the ‘Taking Care of Business’ Tour, whilst also namechecking Brian Adidis of all people when talking about those who were working towards unity. Rhodes finishes the show by challenging Don Kernodle and Ivan Koloff, saying that with Mulligan around, the tag titles are under threat, all whilst making references to how the United States is the superior country to Russia.
An odd show insofar as the in-ring action was really nothing outside of the Youngblood/Renegade match that at least got the crowd engaged, but the promos were good enough to make this watchable. From Blanchard and McDaniel, to Flair and (a less extent) Rhodes, these men did their best to sell their storyline and it made for very good television when a microphone was being used – not so much when the ring itself saw action.
World Class Championship Wrestling 11.8.84
Bill Mercer is with us once again to announce a legitimately big main event match as Kevin Von Erich challenges for the NWA American Heavyweight Championship against Gino Hernandez, an announcement made all the more amusing due to the small video-in-video for the champion shows him putting on a knuckle duster rather than celebrating anything particularly athletic about him. Matches with Buck Zum Hofe, The Missing Link and Buddy Roberts are also mentioned as we head to the first commercial.
The opening match does see the Missing Link in action in a match against George Weingroff, a match that speaks volumes about how non-descript many Link squashes are in so much as I thought I’d already seen these two wrestle before (it turns out Mike Reed was a stand in for Weingroff against the Link at the start of the year). Brilliantly, Mercer tries to act as if the Missing Link IS the Missing Link, the literal middle ground between higher and lower evolutionary species. The Link misses an early headbutt attempt, which sees Weingroff catch three drop toeholds in a row and two dropkicks, with the final one meaning to send the Link to ringside but instead seeing him caught in the ropes. A reverse on an Irish whip in the corner allows Weingroff to land a dropkick off of the middle rope as he has begun with some fire.
It only ever takes a few headbutts from the Link to turn things though, with his own second rope headbutt taking Weingroff down to the canvas. Weingroff manages to kick the Link away from him and land a shoulderblock, but he is halted by a headbutt to the stomach after hitting the ropes. This is enough to keep Weingroff down long enough for Link to land a second rope headbutt for the victory in just over three minutes. Pretty uninspiring stuff all round really.
A third territory has The Pretty Young Things grace their ring as Novell Austin and Koko Ware go up against Buck Zum Hofe and Mike Reed; the positioning of Zum Hofe in opposition clearly showing that the PYT are back in the position of being heels after a brief face run in Mid-South. Zum Hofe’s fired up as the bell rings, so much so that Ware chooses to go back to the corner and discuss plans with Austin. This doesn’t initially help as Zum Hofe lands a side headlock takedown, a shoulderblock and kicks off an attempt by Ware to capitalise after a hiptoss. Zum Hofe is briefly in the heel corner, only to duck a punch by Ware who collides with his teammate instead, whilst also making it clear that Mercer can’t tell the PYT apart as he names them incorrectly.
Quick tags allow Zum Hofe and Reed to isolate Ware initially, with similar offense levied at Austin when the Things make a tag. A back elbow out of a hammerlock slows Zum Hofe down, but he blocks an Austin body slam and hits Ware with one as well, finishing off his offensive spurt with a double noggin knocker. Unfortunately for Zum Hofe, Reed is now in the ring and is quickly isolated by the PYT, with Ware using a belly to belly suplex (‘flying bearhug’ by Mercer) and a quick vertical splash to drive the wind out of his opponent. This time, it is the heel team who utilise the quick tags to keep the fresh man in, with an Austin dropkick followed by a Ware chinlock. Ware uses the arm to keep Reed under control, whilst Austin uses a hammerlock bodyslam to continue to punish the limb.
Reed pointlessly tries to fire back, but a big boot from Austin has the heel shimmying down to his knees in the middle of the ring, much to the chagrin of the fans. Moments later, a mid-ring collision between Ware and Reed leads to the hot tag to Zum Hofe, with ‘Rock and Roll’ hitting multiple body slams and dropkicks. Zum Hofe grabs two nearfalls, one after an Irish whip sends the two PYT members into each other. We even get somewhat of a second heated tag as Reed finds his way back into the contest, but that is pretty much the signal that things are about to end. With all four men brawling, the PYT hit a bearhug/second rope clothesline combination for the three count, with Zum Hofe almost walking past the pin rather than breaking it up due to his positioning. A really good match that surprised me – the PYT are a really good stooging heel tag team as a base to build a match on, playing well with how over Zum Hofe is with the fans. Even Reed got a pop near the end.
Before the next match between Chief Jules Strongbow and Buddy Roberts, we get an announcement that Kevin Von Erich has been delayed at the airport, so his title shot will be going to Mike Von Erich instead. An instant downgrade in expectations then and a window for shenanigans. This match also has either shenanigans or a time limit draw written all over it, with both men beginning with a criss cross and Roberts going to ringside the moment it looks like Strongbow might whack him with a chop, which happens several times. An armdrag by Strongbow is the first offensive manoeuvre, but just leads to more stalling from Roberts. The two men trade wristlocks, with the Chief coming out on top and turning it into a modified cross arm breaker on the mat. More excitingly, Jake Roberts is announced as coming to Texas, whilst Terry Gordy and Killer Khan is booked for next week as Mercer spends time talking about anything but the armbreaker in the ring for a little while.
It isn’t surprising as the arm work lasts a while, before a blocked kick allows Strongbow to spin Roberts into a chop that has the Freebird back to ringside again. Roberts does manage to fight his way out of a top wristlock, but an armdrag has Strongbow back down on the canvas with several knees to the arm. It takes a knee to the stomach to halt Strongbow, but a Roberts elbow to the back of the head only earns him a one count. The momentum switches briefly back to Strongbow, but Roberts manages to slap on a reverse chinlock that needs an eye rake to break. An overhand chop is good enough for one before the chinlock is back on. After a second break of the hold by Strongbow, Roberts uses the ropes to continue to work the throat area, whilst a second rope axehandle and a neckbreaker both earn him two counts.
Strongbow chops from the canvas to turn the tide, with Roberts briefly ending up tied in the ropes, yet the Freebird telegraphs a back body drop attempt and lands a kick. Roberts is king of the mountain as he pitches Strongbow to ringside and refuses to let him re-enter. A couple of punches stops Roberts resistance and fires up the Chief, who lands a chop off of an Irish whip for the three count somewhat out of nowhere. My prediction was wrong, but it was a dull, dull match that felt like it was permanently heading towards a time limit draw.
The main event is last up as Mike Von Erich challenges for Gino Hernandez’s NWA American Heavyweight Championship. Hernandez rushes Mike to start the contest, but an armdrag and dropkick quickly have the champion reeling and fleeing to ringside. A leapfrog, punch and second dropkick end up with Hernandez back on the outside once more as Mercer believes that the champion has underestimated his opponent. Hernandez lands a back elbow to briefly take over, only for Mike to telegraph a back body drop
and land a kick to wrestle control back again. A Von Erich sleeperhold looks like it might have the champion in trouble, but he uses the turnbuckle to break the hold, only to get caught on the top rope and slammed off of it as Mike is always one step ahead or so it seems.
Another back body drop gains Mike a two count, but Hernandez is able to hit a punch to the stomach on the way up to finally put together a string of offense. Turnbuckle smashes, a vicious clothesline and a swinging neckbreaker sees the arrogant smile return to the champion’s face, with a second clothesline as brutal as the first one. A further turnbuckle smash and a suplex have Hernandez taunting the crowd, with the same spot repeated following some casual biting from the champ. Mercer casually mentions Hernandez having issues with Stella Mae French moments before a blonde woman at ringside distracts him for long enough so as to allow Mike to roll him up for the three count and the title. This might be a storyline that would be better understood with the rest of the television, but nothing can explain away giving Mike the belt over Gino outside of being Fritz’s son. What an awful decision.
After the tag team match in the middle of the show, I thought I was on to a winner with the main event as was announced at the start of the show. However, Strongbow/Roberts was boring and aimless, whilst the re-jig of the championship match and Mike’s title victory just leave a sour taste in the mouth over three decades later and removed from the jingoistic booking of the Von Erich boys.
